Our Betters Assemble

Our Betters Assemble
I don’t think the Avengers have much to worry about.

From the third tweet:
“Ben I think the delay may have been caused by ‘multiple arrests’ at Schlumberger.”
Follows (in the tweet), several LOL-faces, and (out here), one shocked-face; mine.

One of the gathered titans suggests the formation of “a learning circle on decolonising Extinction Rebellion and our minds.” To pull in the punters, no doubt.
Clown school.

Clown school.
I should imagine there are people who might be at least partially sympathetic to environmentalism, but who then see these losers, misfits, and preening, incompetent clowns – and recoil accordingly. Especially given the pointed and habitual disregard for residents, commuters and pretty much anyone nearby. The demographic these things attract, and how that demographic behaves, tells us rather more than their pamphlets and slogans.
To say nothing of those who would happily watch these farcical, half-arsed shanty towns, and their farcical occupants, being bulldozed into landfill.

What they are probably actually sympathetic to is conservationism,
Well, you have to wonder what our hypothetical Mrs Wilson down the road, the little old lady who recycles dutifully and who watches her energy use, albeit for reasons of budget, would make of this ludicrous doomsday cult and the preening misfits it attracts.
Say, people who think that getting small children to play with Lego in the middle of the road – because that’s a good precedent – is both a wheeze and top-notch parenting. “Arts and crafts,” baby. Or girls named Tilly and Jemima who like gluing themselves to doors, trains and emergency vehicles, and generally obstructing and frustrating random people, screwing them over, while applauding themselves for their self-imagined radicalism. And who think of being arrested as a recreational activity, a buzz, a badge of in-group status, something to boast about.
The kind of entitled mediocrities whose lives are almost always more comfortable than Mrs Wilson’s, much more comfortable, and who believe that toppling European civilisation, which they claim is uniquely “toxic” and corrupting, would be a jolly lark.

who believe that toppling European civilisation, which they claim is uniquely “toxic” and corrupting, would be a jolly lark
Does said toppling include the EU? Oops, sorry, was assuming logic not in evidence again. Nevermind.

The weather in Cambridge is currently 6 C, raining, with a 18 km / hour wind. In short, kind of miserable.
Next time, protest in August.

You mean Spaghetti Hoops?
As a child, I enjoyed tinned spaghetti on toast, but didn’t like hoops. I cannot explain this.

You mean Spaghetti Hoops?
And so, for reasons that escape me, I find myself browsing the Heinz Spaghetti Hoops recipes section.
Because they have a recipes section now.

Said 60’s swanky bomb shelter:

Said 60’s swanky bomb shelter:
Family arguments during the apocalypse…You don’t put the Rock & Roll records in with the R&B!!!…Charlie Parker is JAZZ!!!.

What is a punter?
It is slang with a complicated etymology from multiple threads. As such it has no precise definition, but you know one when you see one.
The customer of a streetwalker (not a call girl).
Similarly the low stakes mark of a grifter.
Similarly, a low stakes gambler of the lower classes.
Punt is Irish slang for the monetary unit “pound.” Actual punters, people who operated small boats commercially, water cabs, used to control the illicit gambling trade of the waterfront districts for the sort of people who would hang out around the waterfront districts. A punt for a punt and a punt for a roll of the dice.
So more generically the sort of person who looks like the sort of person who would be out looking for a streetwalker or something going on in the back of an alleyway, although these days they’re as likely to be on the dole as to be a manual laborer.
Why do you redcoats say “Lego” for plural building blocks
Because Lego is a singular proper noun. The bricks part is what is plural. Lego is proper. Lego bricks is proper. Legos is not.
but not, say, “Spaghetti O” for several cans of terrible food?
I’ve never heard anyone say Spaghetti O, because “SpaghettiOs” is the proper, singular noun.

Much appreciated David and kfg. Far more satisfying than a Gulag search.
I’ve never heard anyone say Spaghetti O, because “SpaghettiOs” is the proper, singular noun.
Bless you, sir, and never change.

” The weather in Cambridge is currently 6 C, raining, with a 18 km / hour wind. In short, kind of miserable.
Next time, protest in August.
The weather there sounds great!
Here in Oz, whenever a predictable summer event – heatwave, bushfire – comes up all of a sudden everyone is catastrophising and global warming articles pop up like a heat rash in all the national and state papers. Strike while the iron is hot, and all that.

Meanwile, getting back to the gal claiming tonsorial distress, we find the Beeb “fighting hate from all over the world”.
I missed where she was in Scotland, not at all sure if this is a related issue.

The proper singular noun for a can . . .
The can does not have a proper noun. It’s just a can.
Everything inside the can is SpaghettiOs. Don’t complain to me about it. Tell it to Campbell Soup Company.
one individual piece of the circular pasta would . . .
. . . be called “anelli.” There is, oddly enough, no Spaghetti in SpaghettiOs.
Although of Italian derivation it’s an American product with a silly misnamed American trade name (they don’t know what the hell anelli is in Peoria and Anellirific would be even sillier anyway) and so the plural ought to be SpaghettiOses, but ain’t. Sometimes life is just that way.

Primus: Lego bricks is proper. Legos is not.
Secundus: Lies.
When I were a wee lad I didn’t play with Lego bricks (the proper name of the product), for the simple reason that there weren’t any (at least in their final, 1958 form).
There was, however, Lego, which is the name of the company, not its products.
When me mum were a wee lassie there wasn’t even Lego (which dates from 1934), only Ole Kirk’s wooden toy shop, but she rather enjoyed her invitational visit to Legoland Billund.
She didn’t take me.
She didn’t even bring me back a T-shirt.

If you want to get pendantic . . .
No, I want to get silly.
Whoa, Mayor Bloomberg in the house.
OK, as a native Manhattanite that’s going to leave a mark. I was only born there though and that isn’t my fault.
I actually live down the road a piece or three from Podunk but when people make jokes about it I don’t get sore because, well, they’re usually pretty bang on.
I was thinking of retiring to Peoria, but before I could actually do it it actually became a “thing.” Go figure.
Maybe Bozeman?

Ah. A potential Dental Floss tycoon?
Just him and the pygmy pony…oh, and his zircon encrusted tweezers.

Of course, one can’t use a full sized horse…
Only a New Yorker would think such farming is easy…

Oh, David?
The thread seems to have jumped the tracks. Again.
Have you been skimping on the maintenance?
And don’t no one blame me. Why, the upstairs hot tub is Sparkling! And even the henchlesbian uniforms have brighter colors!

Re: Above
https://pjmedia.com/trending/that-freelance-job-killing-law-is-so-bad-that-the-california-legislature-may-dump-it-next-week/

[Returns from shopping expedition. Dumps carrier bags on kitchen counter. Surveys narrative wreckage.]
Did you remember to pick up another case of pickled “eggs” and camel hump fat? Asking for the Gimp in the basement.

OK, that made me giggle.
Tweezers. Wait a minute. Let me sterilize them for you…give me your lighter.
[ Blows the dust off Overnight Sensation and puts it on the turntable ]

Not news for those of us who have paid attention.

AP’s Freedom of Expression survey has uncovered pressures on arts workers’ ability to speak out ranging from the fear of harassment and humiliation to more overt measures like non-disclosure agreements. More than 500 artists and arts workers contributed some 60,000 words on questions about their experiences navigating controversy and coercion.

and

The research indicates the arts and cultural sector is intolerant of viewpoints outside of the dominant norms. Anything that might be considered “politically incorrect” to the liberal-leaning sector – including expressing support or sympathy for Brexit, the Conservatives or other right-wing political parties – was felt to be risky territory.
[snip]
More than three-quarters of respondents said workers who share controversial opinions risk being professionally ostracised. One person commented that people working in the sector are “nowhere near as open as they pretend to be, there is a lot of hiding and backstabbing”.

Not news for those of us who have paid attention.
As I said in this lengthy thread over at Franklin’s Artblog,

The political uniformity and extraordinary conceits of our own publicly-funded arts establishment have entertained us many, many times. As when the writer Hanif Kureishi told Guardian readers that culture, as represented by him, is “a form of dissent,” while the paper’s theatre critic Michael Billington claimed that a reduction of taxpayer subsidy for loss-making plays is nothing less than “suppression” of that “dissent.” Likewise, when the playwright Jonathan Holmes claimed that he and his peers are “speaking truth to power” – I kid you not – and insisted, based on nothing, that “the sole genuine reason for cuts is censorship of some form” and “the only governments to systematically attack the arts have been the ones that also attacked democracy.”
You see, the suggestion that artists might consider earning a living, rather than leeching at the taxpayer’s teat, is apparently indistinguishable from fascist brutality and the end of civilisation. Though when the status quo in London’s dramatic circles is overwhelmingly leftwing, and when publicly subsidised art and theatre tend to favour parties that favour further public subsidy for art and theatre, what “dissent” actually means is somewhat unclear. And reluctant taxpayers please take note: Despite all the years of providing hand-outs, you’re now the oppressor.

For readers with an interest in such things, there’s plenty to chew on over there.